Naturally dyed play dough is a simple, natural way to entertain little ones for hours. Today I am sharing with you a recipe for homemade play dough made with all natural ingredients and natural dyes.
Hands on Learning with Play Dough
In our home we love hands on activities for learning. We completed a theme week of learning using this homemade, naturally dyed play dough recipe. If you are looking for faith based, home learning ideas to do with your little one you will LOVE my account Faith Filled Learner on Instagram. You can also instantly download free learning activities here!
Anyways, back to our play dough talk. When I was searching for ideas to do with my little one, I wanted something that wasn’t going to be toxic and preferably something eco-friendly, that didn’t come in a plastic container.
How to Naturally Dye Play Dough
We made 4 different colors for this project. Each ball of play dough was one of the recipe below. I ended up cutting each of the balls in half, storing half in an airtight container to use on a different day.
For our naturally dyed okay dough colors, I used:
🌺Magenta: 1/2 cup dried hibiscus flowers – 1 cup of boiling water – steeped 4+ hours – strain and remove flower petals
💛Yellow: 1 tsp ground turmeric – 1 cup of boiling water – steeped 4+ hours
🌿 Green: 1 tsp spirulina- 1 cup of boiling water – steeped 4+ hours
🍇 Purple : 1/2 c dried elderberries – 1 cup of boiling water – steeped 4+ hours – strain and remove Elderberries
Other color options:::
Beet juice
Carrot juice
Calendula petal tea
Lavender tea (for relaxing scents)
Green juice
Cabbage juice
Frozen blueberries (use boiling water to steep & remove berries from liquid)
Coffee
Cocoa powder in place of flour 🍫
Activities for Kids
This activity is great to do with little ones, if they are patient enough to wait while you cook the play dough. There is a hot stove involved, so plan accordingly. My little one loves to stand his learning tower and observe or participate in the process.
You could also make this recipe and give it as a gift to another child! I would recommend cutting each of the balls in half or quarters and putting them in a small mason jar. You could add a ribbon and gift tag as well. You could include these eco-friendly play dough rollers and wooden stamps.
